While most of the news has focused on the environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, a lot of bad news has been coming from Afghanistan. According to iCasualties.org (here), 168 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, including 39 already in June. At the current June rate, June will be the deadliest month for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in this very long war.
In addition, recent reports from Helmand province indicate that the initial success reported there is not being sustained. The Washington Post published an article by Rajiv Chandrasekaran on June 10th (here). The first paragraph reads as follows:
Residents of this onetime Taliban sanctuary see signs that the insurgents have regained momentum in recent weeks, despite early claims of success by U.S. Marines. The longer-than-expected effort to secure Marja is prompting alarm among top American commanders that they will not be able to change the course of the war in the time President Obama has given them.
Firefights between insurgents and security forces occur daily, resulting in more Marine fatalities and casualties over the past month than in the first month of the operation, which began in mid-February.On top of all that and probably because of all that General McChrystal has done his best to reduce expectations for the Kandahar operation, which was modeled on the operation in Helmand province which as indicated above is not doing as well as initially reported. Here are some excerpts from an article by Anne Gearan published by the Huffington Post on June 10th (here):
Afghans have not yet rallied behind a U.S. military-led effort to push the Taliban out of the city where the insurgency began, and the top commander conceded Thursday that he needs more time to win them over.The struggle for control of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, is considered the crucial test of President Barack Obama's revamped strategy for a war that is increasingly unpopular in the United States and Europe.So what does our government do to try to keep or gain support for a war strategy that is failing? They say that suddenly a trillion dollars of mineral reserves have been found in Afghanistan and that will give great prosperity to Afghanistan. The New York Times report on this topic today was on the front page with the headline "U.S. Discovers Mineral Riches in Afghanistan" and the online edition headline was "U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan" (here). Unfortunately, the implication from our government as set forth in the article is that this potential wealth for Afghanistan was just discovered. But it has been known for years. Even a careful reading of The New York Times article illustrates that there is no recent discovery. Rachel Maddow did a great job of pointing out that the timing of this "news" was really meant to shore up support for the Afghan war. Here is the segment from the Rachel Maddow Show tonight.
The Kandahar operation will unfold more slowly and last longer than the military had planned, Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters at a NATO meeting here.
"I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing," McChrystal said. "I think it's more important that we get it right than we get it fast."
The operation is proceeding more slowly than expected because the Taliban is not regarded as a hated occupier in the city, and not all of its residents welcome NATO's help.
McChrystal also said the nearly nine-year-old war is turning away from stalemate, but the Taliban is fighting hard.
"There are going to be tough days ahead," McChrystal said. "Violence is up, and I think violence is going to continue to rise, particularly over the summer months."
U.S. and other military commanders previously had said the operation would ramp up in June and largely conclude by August. Now military officials say the operation will last far into the fall.
Candidate Obama promised to change the way that things are done in Washington, but he is not being truthful with the American people when he permits the dissemination of a story that implies that something new has happened that is good when there is really nothing new. I expect more from President Obama than politics as usual. He was wrong to escalate the war in Afghanistan. If he wants to continue a failing war that cannot be won, he should state his case to the American people and try to convince us. He should use truth and logic, not half truths and innuendo. When President Obama acts like this, it is no wonder that the American people don't trust their government.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
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